


Getting Approval

by mielipieli



Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-25 20:09:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20917889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mielipieli/pseuds/mielipieli
Summary: When Steph first meets the Justice League shortly after becoming Robin, it's not like she imagined. None of them seem to acknowledge her. So, to help her be sure of herself, Babs sends her to Blüdhaven.





	Getting Approval

Steph thought that she’d be happier after meeting the JLA for the first time. Instead she feels ready to cry and just wants to curl up on her bed. But she told Oracle she’d take a computer lesson and she  _ really  _ doesn’t want to disappoint Oracle. 

She can’t even enjoy grappling to the Clocktower which usually is her favorite thing in the world. She can’t even really pinpoint what was so upsetting. It just felt like she wasn’t accepted, like she didn’t belong. A combination of the way Flash stared at her and the way some of the others’ eyes drifted over to her once in a while but she was never actually acknowledged by any of them. 

When she slips into the clocktower through a window and Oracle cheerfully asks how it was, she can’t stop her lips from quivering. She bitse down on them and refuses to answer, looks away, anywhere but at Oracle. The sound of Oracle’s wheelchair moving closer gets her to look in front of her again just in time to be tugged down and hugged. It feels like the sobs are torn from her chest. 

“That good?”

She manages to suppress her sobs while telling Babs what happened. Her retelling is completely chaotic but Babs seems to be able to follow. 

When she’s finished, Babs adds: “And Wonder Woman wasn’t even there.”

A wet laugh is torn from Steph’s lips: “And Wonder Woman wasn’t even there.”

Babs hands her a tissue and gestures for her to sit down, which Steph does: “Okay. I’ll try to explain what I think happened back there.” Steph nods. “So: B is not the best at communication as you may have noticed. He probably didn’t tell any of them there’s a new Robin. And he also didn’t tell them what happened to the other one. And this is a dangerous field of work… Do you see where I’m going with this?”   
  


Steph blanches. Oh, instead of not approving of her, they’d just been worried about Tim being dead or seriously injured. 

“Now, Flash is Nightwing’s best friend and was probably five seconds away from running to Blüdhaven as soon as he saw you. Superman watched B grieve Jason and was presumably forgetting to welcome you into the community because he was busy watching B for signs of a mental breakdown. And the rest of them were just trying to figure out what had happened. Now, could you go outside for five minutes while I yell at Bruce?”

* * *

“Okay, Steph”, Babs says when she reenters the room. “We need to move our lesson to another day.  _ You  _ need to change into civvies and get to Blüdhaven. Here’s money for the train ticket. I told your mom that you’re having a sleepover with Cass here. You’re going to be picked up by Nightwing at the train station.” 

It takes Steph a moment to process the words that has just been said to her and take the money: “Okay… Will I find out what I’m doing there?”

Babs winks at her. Steph decides she isn’t getting an answer. 

* * *

It’s so fucking weird to see Nightwing without a mask. Like, sure, Steph knows what he looks like because she knows his secret identity - not that she was told but she knows Batman’s and she isn’t _ stupid _ \- and he isn’t exactly unknown, but it’s still weird. Next to him stands a redhead who is about five centimeters taller than him. Steph is pretty sure she knows his face but can’t place it. 

“Hello, Steph. I’m Dick”, Nightwing says and offers her his hand. 

She takes it and smiles carefully: “Nice to meet you. Officially, that is.”

The redhead offers his hand as well: “I’m Wally. We met this morning.”

Something clicks in her head. Oh, Flash. That’s why he seems familiar. His ID is public.

She can’t quite stop her mouth from being stupid sometimes, so she says: “How nice of you to actually talk to me this time.” 

But instead of being angry, The Flash rubs his neck as if  _ he’s  _ the one who should be uncomfortable: “I’m sorry about that. I was so busy worrying about Tim and Dick that I forgot to consider what the whole situation must have felt like for you. Dick already yelled at me for that earlier - not that you can’t also yell at me if you want to - he tends to do that a lot. Yell at me, I mean…” Towards the end Wally seemed to add speed to his sentences and only stops when Dick interrupts him: 

“Wally, you’re rambling.”

Wally abruptly shuts his mouth and Steph can’t help but laugh. Then Wally’s words sink in: “Wait, he yelled at you?”, she looks at Dick, “You yelled at him?”

Dick shrugs: “We’re the OG sidekicks. It’s, like, our self appointed job to make sure the infuriating stuff the JLA used to do when we were kids doesn’t happen anymore. Besides, you’re kinda my little sis now. I need to make sure you’re treated right.”

Steph’s jaw drops. He spoke like everything he’s saying is entirely self-evident. No question about it. But there are questions. Bruce has only actually called her Robin, like once. He yells at her constantly, criminals never take her seriously. Like a little girl playing dress up. But to Dick, apparently, she is undeniably Robin. And in a way, Steph thinks because of what Tim and Babs have told her about the history of Robin, his opinion is the only one that actually matters. 

“Now, let’s go. I think it’s going to rain soon.”

* * *

Dick’s apartment is on the other end of town and the parking there is terrible, so they still have a bit of a walk left. Dick greets everyone they meet by name, Wally sometimes join in. Dick introduces her as his little sister. When he does it for the first time, he meets her eyes as if asking her whether that’s okay. When she gives him a subtle nod, he smiles at her. 

Steph hangs back, about a meter behind the others. At some point during the drive it hit her that not only are Dick and Wally Nightwing and Flash, they are also the original Robin and Kid Flash. And, yeah, she knew that. Objectively. But, somehow, it didn’t quite register that Dick is the person who she concentrated on when stuck in that closet: Any moment now, Robin will arrive and he’ll unlock the door and he’ll lift her up and get her mom and her to safety. 

The very first sidekick. He’s the reason she decided that  _ she  _ could do something about her fate. She didn’t have to wait around for someone else to save her. She could save herself. She wonders whether the Titans know how much of an impact they have made on kids everywhere. Especially Dick and Speedy - she’s pretty sure his name is Roy but she hasn’t met him yet and doesn’t feel like it’s right to use his secret identity.

Dick stops in front of a slightly rundown apartment building. Steph stares at it. She kind of expected him to live in a super fancy place. Like a penthouse in the best part of the city. He has Wayne money. But it’s not only that. The way Tim always talks about Dick and Blüdhaven and his apartment, it sounds like Dick lives in paradise. In that moment, Steph realizes how much Tim loves and adores Dick. How much he means to him. 

Dick lives in the first storey and his apartment has a nice homey feel to it. It’s slightly messy but just clean enough to not become uncomfortable. Steph is pretty sure that he cleaned while she was on her way there. 

“Make yourself comfortable”, Dick point at the chairs around a dining table. 

As soon as the door is closed, Wally moves into one of the chairs at superspeed. 

“I thought your identity was public. Why did you only use your superspeed once the door was closed?”, Steph asks as she pulls out a chair for herself and sits down. She watches Dick go to the fridge and get what looks like a delivery service menu. 

Wally shifts in his seat: “Well, it’s still not really a good idea to constantly display my abilities. One, it pisses people off. Two, more importantly, someone who might not think about me as anyone else but a friend of one of the people in this neighborhood and never make the connection that I’m Flash, might start to wonder why Dick knows a Justice Leaguer. Sure, there’s tons of contingency plans for all kinds of situations and it’s not particularly hard to explain since Dick dated Kory publicly a few years back.” Oh, yeah, Steph remembers that. “But it’s never a good idea to point people towards the ones you care about.”

Steph nods thoughtfully. She’s seen the news. Lois Lane is almost constantly being attacked by people trying to get to Superman. The cool thing is that it leads to amazing reaction gifs of Lois pepper spraying villains.

“Hey”, Dick interrupts her thoughts. “No sullen moods. This evening is for fast food and movies.”

“So… you don’t subscribe to Bruce and Alfred’s doctrine of proper diet?”, Steph asks carefully because she’s on a very strict diet to ‘keep her body in the best possible shape because when you’re not in perfect shape, that’s how people get hurt’. 

Wally laughs: “Are you kidding me? Dick’s first act of teenage rebellion was occasionally eating burgers.” He stops to think: “And founding a superhero team, for that matter. Dick, I think we were weird teenagers.”

“You’re realizing that now?”, Dick asks and joins them at the table. “Okay, I can offer Chinese food or Pizza. Which one do you prefer?” He looks at Steph expectantly and she gets a warm and fuzzy feeling inside.

* * *

They end up watching Star Wars until 4am. They started with episode 4 and Dick has been sleeping since before they switched to episode 1. 

“He never sleeps enough”, Wally explains as he changes the DVD. 

Steph wakes up remembering having started episode 2 but she doesn’t remember turning off the TV, so she probably didn’t stay awake through it all. She’s alone on the couch and someone - probably Wally - put a blanket on top of her. It’s slowly getting light outside, she can see it through the blinds. Steph decides to turn around and get some more sleep. 

The next time she wakes up is because a door opens. It’s Dick, who only looks half awake and is still wearing his jeans and t-shirt from the day before. He smiles at Steph:

“Did you sleep alright?”

She nods and pushes herself up into a sitting position: “How about you?”

“Don’t know when I last got this much uninterrupted sleep.” He pauses, then points at the bathroom door. “I’m just gonna…”

So, Steph is alone again in Dick Grayson’s living room. It feels so freaking weird. And she is so incredibly happy. She’s Robin. Superboy might not accept it and Bruce - well, that one kind of hurts - might only see her as Robin until someone better shows up. But Babs and Dick, they don’t doubt that she’s Robin. And Cass grins at her every time they work together. Those are the ones that count, Steph decides. 


End file.
